A court has ruled that there’s no case against Musk
Elon Musk and Tesla have successfully completed a legal challenge accusing them of manipulating the price of Dogecoin, a popular cryptocurrency. The lawsuit, which sought a staggering $258 billion in damages, was dismissed yesterday by Judge Alvin Hellerstein of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York.
The lawsuit was initiated by a group of Dogecoin investors who claimed that Musk had artificially inflated the value of Dogecoin through his tweets, causing its price to surge by over 36,000% in just two years before it eventually crashed. The plaintiffs argued that Musk used his influence as one of the world’s richest individuals to create what they described as a “Dogecoin Pyramid Scheme.”
However, Judge Hellerstein found the investors’ claims to be lacking in substance. He ruled that Musk’s tweets about Dogecoin, including jokes about becoming the cryptocurrency’s CEO and sending a “literal” Dogecoin to the moon via SpaceX, were not factual statements but rather “aspirational and puffery.” Hellerstein emphasized that no reasonable investor could have taken Musk’s tweets as sound investment advice, thus dismissing the allegations of market manipulation.
Musk’s legal team had previously characterized the lawsuit as a “fanciful work of fiction” and argued that the claims were baseless. They requested the case be dismissed in March 2023, a request that was ultimately granted by the court.
Following the news of the lawsuit’s dismissal, Dogecoin’s price remained relatively stable, showing only a minor increase of 0.1% in the 24 hours following the decision. At the time, Dogecoin was trading at approximately $0.10, having dipped by 20% over the past month.
This ruling marks a significant legal victory for Musk and Tesla, effectively closing the chapter on the allegations of Dogecoin manipulation.
